National Wildlife Federation California Director Beth Pratt

Laughter Is My Language of Choice

Beth Pratt, the California director for the National Wildlife Federation, lives outside of Yosemite National Park. In her spare time, she hikes the backcountry and is a distance swimmer and runner. Before participating in a panel on the wildlife of L.A., she professed her love of karaoke and matcha tea—both products of time spent in Japan—as well as East Coast pizza and dolphins.

Q:

As a kid, what was your favorite cartoon?


A:

The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, and maybe Super Friends. I was in love with Aquaman because he got to swim with the dolphins.


Q:

If you could be any animal, which would you choose?


A:

I think a wolf. They are just amazing animals. They get to run all over beautiful country and howl—I mean, who doesn’t want to howl at the moon sometimes?


Q:

What’s the toughest race you’ve ever competed in?


A:

That would definitely be the Tioga Pass Run, where you run from the town of Lee Vining all the way to Tioga Pass in Yosemite. It’s 12 miles, and they bill it as “12 miles, only one hill,” because it’s entirely uphill.


Q:

Where do you go to be alone?


A:

Yosemite. Yosemite’s my favorite place on Earth, and I wander in the backcountry. I go off trail. One of my favorite places there is the Dana Pass. You’re essentially walking on a 12,000-feet-elevation almost Martian landscape that hasn’t been radically altered in almost 25 million years. No major glaciations have touched it.


Q:

What’s your drink of choice?


A:

One of my favorite drinks is matcha tea. I spent six weeks in Japan and became addicted to matcha. You can do it as tea, a latte; you can do matcha ice cream. It’s a good diverse drink.


Q:

What’s your favorite constellation?


A:

The dolphin in the summer sky.


Q:

When did you last get a traffic ticket and why?


A:

I almost got one in Berkeley yesterday; I parked and forgot to put money in the meter, but the traffic parking gods must have been with me because I came back and didn’t get a ticket. I think the last ticket must have been in college in Boston.


Q:

Do you miss anything about New England?


A:

Yes. The good pizza. You cannot get really good, greasy East Coast pizza out here. And Cape Cod. I grew up on Cape Cod, and that is a landscape like no other.


Q:

What’s your go-to karaoke song?


A:

I am a grand karaoke person. In Japan I was on a business trip, and it’s what they do every night—it is not a myth. I got very good at it. I would say the Eagles’ “Take It Easy.” I actually sang a duet in Japanese to Simon & Garfunkel’s “Feelin’ Groovy.” I mean, every night!


Q:

When did you last laugh?


A:

I have one of the loudest laughs, my friends will tell you, and laugh a lot, so the better question would be, when did you not laugh? Laughter seems to be my language of choice, I think.